EXETER, RI – August 9, 2017 –  Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc. (GHMS), a mission-driven community health center in Georgia, and Carousel Industries, a leader in communication and network technologies, professional and managed services, and cloud solutions, have partnered to deliver significantly improved care to a wide community of patients across GHMS’ five locations in Georgia. See and hear how Carousel and the Georgia Highlands IT team have transformed patient care here.

Under the direction of CIO Cristy McAdams, GHMS set an organizational goal of better protecting its sensitive patient data. The team strengthened its perimeter security and bolstered the network to ensure 24×7 system uptime–enabling swift access to data by GHMS personnel.

“IT is becoming the future of healthcare,” said Todd Shifflet, CEO, GHMS. “Carousel’s expertise was pivotal in bringing the new levels of network and system reliability we require for our patients.  We now have the capacity to see more patients, give better care, and, true to our mission, give back to our communities.”

To improve perimeter security, GHMS chose Fortinet FortiGate security appliances at each location, using a unified threat management (UTM) security bundle. Together, GHMS and Carousel assembled a comprehensive solution that offers everything required by the five healthcare clinics–including proven perimeter and network security and ongoing managed services.

“In healthcare environments, access to information systems and patient data for customer care must be as easy and automatic as using any other utility: you flip a switch, and it works–all the time, every time,” said McAdams.  “With the guidance and vision provided by Carousel, we’ve created turnkey collaboration and computing systems that ensure our ability to deliver optimal patient care. By selecting, implementing, and managing our collaboration and network infrastructures, Carousel has served as an invaluable extension of my IT team.”

“Trust in IT systems in around-the-clock healthcare settings is paramount, and that’s exactly what Carousel and Fortinet have provided,” said James Marsh, Chief Revenue Officer, Carousel Industries. “We are proud to have partnered with GHMS to architect its entire infrastructure–from phone systems and video, to network security–for the betterment of its patient community.”

About Georgia Highlands Medical Services

Founded in 1979, Georgia Highlands Medical Services is a private, non-profit community health center that operates five medical centers and provides primary and preventive health care to more than 16,000 residents of Bartow, Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth and surrounding communities in North Georgia.  Services include family practice, pediatrics, women’s services (OB-GYN), geriatrics, a retail pharmacy, family planning, translation, immunizations, case management, eligibility assistance, health education and outreach.  Throughout its history, GHMS has received local and national acclaim for its delivery of comprehensive, quality health services.